Return of Obra Dinn. Such an incredible experience.
I played that just after the birth of my second child and it quickly became one of my absolute favourite games of all time.
Also really unnerving for a game that literally can't rely on jump scares.
Horizon: Zero Dawn.
Captivating storyline combined with interesting fights and beautiful visuals.
The normies? What is this, reddit
I was almost not going to respond with Outer Wilds, since it feels like I played forever ago. But apparently I only played it in June of this year, so that's my choice. It's one of my favorite games now, if not my favorite game ever.
It's so good, in fact, that it's helping me get over this weird anxiety I have of talking about my hobbies with other people (including my closest friends). Outer Wilds is so good that even though I hate talking about games I like, I still feel the need to recommend it to people. And now that the floodgates are open I feel a bit more comfortable talking about my other favorite games, like Baba is You, which I got another person to play as well, and The Messenger, which I'm playing now and loving it.
So what's your pitch on the Outer Wilds? I know barely anything about it and it's always best to hear these things from someone who knows the game.
Outer Wilds is one of those games that is better the less you know about it. So I will be a bit vague, bit this would be my pitch:
It's a space archeology game with a very good story, charming characters, and an intriguing mystery. It has fun mechanics, as I enjoy simply flying around in the ship (once I got the hang of it) and some unique puzzle design.
After the tutorial section it is an extremely non-linear experience.
Highly recommend, don't look up any spoilers though!
Unfortunately, I agree with the other commenter. It's very hard to talk about the game without taking a bit out of the experience.
I will say that it's a space exploration game, where you fly around a tiny (handcrafted!) solar system and explore the various planets. There are a handful of mysteries around this solar system and you eventually figure out how the various clues intersect.
It's also very much a game about information. You never gain upgrades or stats or anything, your character when you start the game is exactly the same as when you finish it. But you learn things about the solar system and your knowledge of this world and it's mysteries increases, directing you on where to go next and what to do. The game also doesn't present you with explicit goals, so at the beginning you can do pretty much everything you want, but there is an ending you will eventually reach by following the clues laid out around the universe (and I seriously recommend that you don't stop before the ending).
It's also a very hard game to replay, as after you know the answer to the mysteries, there's a part of the appeal that is lost. I wish I could forget about it so I could replay it fresh!
If you liked outer wilds I would check out Forgotten City. I just started it, but it has a similar feel. It's more piecing things together through dialouge rather than exploration but has a similar "the whole world is a puzzle" vibe with the a kinda rouge lite experience of needing to use what you learn each cycle to progress further.
Probably Hollow Knight.
Saying Crusader Kings III feels like cheating cause I‘ve just been playing it for a long time.
Kenshi. Unlimited replayability and modability.
I finally got around to playing the Mass Effect trilogy (the Legendary Edition remasters, anyway). It's excellent.
In 2011, I gave up on ME1 after getting to a very difficult combat encounter that I was not prepared for and having no other saves to go back to. I essentially rage-quit the trilogy for over 10 years, lol.
Still about halfway through ME3 but I am already planning my second playthrough. Truly a God-tier set of games, IMO.
Mass Effect Legendary Edition (the full trilogy)
Tunic. Not that old either (2022), but I guess it's not "this year". The whole game is captivating.
Super Mario Odyssey. It's mostly extremely fun, controls well, with only occasional camera angles and poor checkpointing infuriation lighting its copybook.
To a lesser extent, I liked Hitman 3, Factorio and Plate Up! (fun to play on the TV locally with friends)
Celeste is so good, it instantly became one of my all time favorites when I played last year, I even bought the PC version for playing on the go with a laptop, shame there was never a vita version.
I'll share three based on how much I want to play them again soon
- The Last of Us Part 2
- Kena Bridge of Spirits
- Days Gone
I gave Fallout 4 another try recently, after only playing a few hours of it a couple of years back. I ended up getting sucked into it. So far, I've only used a couple of quality-of-life mods, like a high FPS fix and allowing Dogmeat to be a companion alongside any other companion, which the game had unimplemented code for.
I've tried multiple times to get into this fallout having liked the others from the first but I just hate all that base building crap that it keeps trying to force on you.
Is there a mod to remove all base building quests so I can just ignore that shit?
I don't know that there's a mod, but the building really can be mostly ignored outside of a small handful of quests. It's mostly optional.
I'm pretty sure the intro quest to base building is optional. Once you save Gravy and friends you can just leave and go about your day ignoring Sturges. The teleporter later on is mandatory though but that only takes a few minutes.
Try Sim Settlements mod. It doesn't remove the settlements, but it makes it interesting.
Instead of doing everything yourself, you can plop down plots for different purposes and then the sellers build it themselves over time.
You can also opt for a pre-made town footprint by choosing a settler as mayor.
Thanks for the recommendation. I'll check it out and give fallout 4 another try once I've finished what I'm playing currently. Having them just do it all themselves sounds much more appealing to me xD
It gave me a reason to wanna check back on settlements because it would change while I was away doing other stuff.
It's also much less bunker-dorm-with-turrets.
There are also mods so that settlers actually defend themselves, cutting down on a lot of babysitting.
Probably 'Talos Principle'. I still haven't finished it though. A tier puzzle game for me. Maybe S tier by the time I finish!
Autonauts, Astroneer, Factorio, Minecraft. All great games with excellent replay value IMO.
- God of War II
- Tekken 1 through Tekken 5 (so far)
I used to play Tekken 1 and Tekken 3 on PS1, so huge nostalgic trip. And I've wanted to play God of War for forever, but never had a PS2, but Steam Deck (and Emudeck) made emulation so easy that I'm catching up.
I just started playing Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and man alive is it good. I've never been a fan of the soulslike genre but apparently all I need to fall in love are the samurai aesthetic and a mother frickin PARRY ability!
Lies of P is amazing get around to it. Parry is a bit more clunky but still amazing.
ADACA and Signalis just came out last year so not far behind but they were fun. ADACA is billed as Half-Life meets Halo meets STALKER by reviewers and it’s a fun, light FPS. (although I couldn’t get into the more open Zone Patrol mode)
Signalis though, that oozes atmosphere, an excellent soundtrack, and offered feels in a neat fleshed out world. I enjoyed the gameplay quite a bit, a callback to top-down survival horror from an era I never really played. I really appreciate a lack of jump scares except one enemy’s presence when you enter a room making your screen/radio go haywire but hardly FNAF material which I will only watch.
Probably Mass Effect Legendary Edition
Grounded, The Forest.
Good on a steam deck.
I don't know if it's the best, but the oldest games I've played this year are:
- Montezuma's Revenge
- Commander Keen
- Zelda (NES)
I'm also looking for an old game I had on a 5" floppy back then... a fast-paced vertical scrolling shootemup/bullet hell, possibly with "Goose" in its name...
That and a Space Invaders-like that sounds like Galaxian, but is not Galaxian...
Similar concept, but possibly from the 90s, and your ship had a retractable claw to catch power-ups, and some sort of vertical sidebar in its UI with your score, wave progress, etc.
I don't really think it's your answer, but Galaga is in the neighborhood on name and gameplay.
It's possible a different version than I remember had some type of claw.
I’ll have to say Cloud Punk.
A small indie game about a girl starting her courier job in a cyberpunk future.
- The game-play is okayish
- The graphics try to emulate a voxel look and are functional at best.
- The Sound design, music and the full synchronisation make this game exceptional!
The story captured me and together with the audio and visual style kept me playing way into the small hours.
This is a really fun one in my opinion, and I loved the story, characters, and ambiance.
Toem. I heard it was pretty good but I was surprised how cozy it was to play. A great example of Iyashikei in gaming
For me, it's No Mans Sky. I've put a lot of hours into it this year.
Doom Eternal, Team Fortress 2
Bloodborne, Sifu or Hyper Light Drifter.
I don't really want to pick between the three, but I'll go with Sifu, because it's got a little of that super tough, Fromsoftiness built in.
Runs like a dream on my Steamdeck too, and has some genuinely really impressive moments of beauty that I wasn't expecting from a super-hard-beat-people-up-with-a-pipe game.
My backlog is so big I figure any game that I've played would qualify.
Ticket to Earth would be mine.
I am working my way through Yakuza 5 though which I'm really enjoying.
Patient Gamers
A gaming community free from the hype and oversaturation of current releases, catering to gamers who wait at least 12 months after release to play a game. Whether it's price, waiting for bugs/issues to be patched, DLC to be released, don't meet the system requirements, or just haven't had the time to keep up with the latest releases.
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